Hello all!
My name is Wankun, but you can also call me Kun. I am a senior at BSU studying Mechanical Engineering. I was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand, quite a bit away from here. I came to the United States in 2010 with a goal of pursuing higher education. A little bit about myself: I like to spend my leisure time cooking, playing tennis, and doing anything car-related.
Being raised in a city from another country definitely has influenced me to have different perspective in a lot of things. For example, unlike most Idahoans, I was never really exposed to outdoor activities like rafting, hiking, or skiing, I didn’t know what it’s like to go watch the rodeo, and I never imagined that people could love football so much they built a bus dedicated for tailgating. Rather, I grew up where playing soccer on a sidewalk was considered outdoor activities, where teenagers spend their weekends at the tutoring center, and where viewing something differently from someone older (teachers, relatives, parents) was considered disrespectful.
I don’t spend a lot of time with books or other texts as I don’t enjoy reading much, even when I was still in Thailand. With English being my second language, it is rather rare that I would pick up a book, written in English, to read in my leisure time, although it seems like I will have to do just that in this course. To learn about what’s going on in the U.S. and around the world, I mostly watch the news from a few websites.
Back home, I was exposed to very limited amount of history education. Thai schools, if at all, barely provide their students with knowledge about history around the world. I look forward to learn more about it from both my instructor and my peers!
I am very excited to learn along side you and hope that you succeed in pursuing your higher education.
Welcome to the class, Kun!
I’m really looking forward to reading your take on the various people and places we’ll be exploring in this class, but especially to reading your perspective on the U.S. past and present. (No pressure, though!) 😉
I hope that while you’re here in Idaho, you’ve been able to try some of the things you mentioned: going to a rodeo, rafting, hiking, or skiing. If you’ve been, I’d love to hear what you thought about the rodeo. It strikes me as being so very North American, though of course people around the world have games on horseback as well.
Wow, you are a little ways from home! How often do you get to go back? One thing I haven’t gotten to do yet is travel very much, and it’s something I look forward to in the future because I LOVE hearing different perspectives from different people. I am excited to get to work with you this semester!